A founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Harvey Lodish joined the MIT faculty in 1968, and has been a professor of biology since 1976 and professor of bioengineering since 1999. A leader in the field of membrane biology, he has isolated and cloned numerous proteins that reside on the surface of cells and play a role in cell growth, glucose transport and fatty acid transport. His results have important implications for the treatment of cancer, diabetes, heart disease and obesity.

His research focuses on several important areas at the interface between molecular cell biology and medicine: the development of red blood cells, isolating and growing hematopoietic stem cells (rare adult bone marrow cells capable of generating all blood and immune cells), and the role of hormones produced by fat cells in boosting fat and sugar metabolism and in affecting resistance to insulin.

Lodish earned his Ph.D. at Rockefeller University in 1966. He was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1986, a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1987, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999.